Drawknife for primitive bow making

[dustintml]

Can someone refer me to a good website to order a good drawknife for use in primitive bow making? I am looking for something no more than 50 bucks, but I want something that is good quality.

[welderguy]

Hey there Dustin maybe you can give us an intro and tell us about yourself. just follow the link below.
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=14

[dustintml]

I have to give an intro of myself if I want to ask a question ....?

[welderguy]

I have to give an intro of myself if I want to ask a question ....?

It helps to know who were talking to as well as your experience level so the other members know how to answer your questions.

But no you don't have to post an intro its just a polite thing to do IMO.

[your_comforting_company]

I recommend checking the antique shops. I found the one I use for scraping hides in the old barn, it was my grandads. Found all sorts of good tools in old barns, and antique shops, usually for a fraction of the price, and often only needing new handles.

[klickitat]

I am not a big fan, but ebay is a great place to find draw knives. Also there are a few guys on here who are knife makers and blacksmiths. You might get to know some of them and maybe talk one of them into building you a custom draw knife.

[huskymill]

the only time I've ever used one of those was to debark a tree trunk that i used to make a baseball bat in wood shop in high school. it seemed kinda awkward to use. I'm not sure how that would be used to make a bow, but I'm not an expert, in fact I've never even tried making a bow before.

[dustintml]

Nobody sells drawknives where I live. I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada and because the Island is such a small place, we usually don't have any tools that are not standard/mainstream. (i.e. we don't have a lot of people into "primitive skills" here). I'm sure there are plenty of people who have really old drawknives in their garage or barn, but nobody that I know of. And because drawknives are really not even used in regular woodworking nowadays, I'm pretty sure we don't have any places that sell them.

[dustintml]

That is why I specifically asked for "websites", not places to go to; because here on PEI we don't have that money stores other than your standard department stores like Walmart, Canadian Tire, Homehardware, Home Depot and none of these places have drawknives.

[Coote]

G'day Dustintml.

Sorry.... I don't know of a website where you can buy a drawknife, although I imagine they exist.

I've made a few bows, and I have a drawknife. However I gave up using a drawknife and evolved to using a hatchet for most of the work. I've even made a bow or two using nothing but a hatchet.... even for cutting the string nocks.

A drawknife works best if you have something decent to clamp and hold the stave while shaving with the drawknife.... and that adds further 'complication' to the whole process. But when using a hatchet all you need is something to rest the stave on while making the hatchet cuts. A 'chopping block' made from a section of log is good. I've even used an old magazine on the floor indoors when working on a bow.

A hatchet seems more primitive to me as well. And with practice (and a sharp edge) some surprisingly fine cuts can be made.

I still like having the old drawknife hanging on the shed wall. I might use it one day to make some new oars for our small dinghy.

Best wishes from New Zealand.... Coote.

[dustintml]

G'day Dustintml.

Sorry.... I don't know of a website where you can buy a drawknife, although I imagine they exist.

I've made a few bows, and I have a drawknife. However I gave up using a drawknife and evolved to using a hatchet for most of the work. I've even made a bow or two using nothing but a hatchet.... even for cutting the string nocks.

A drawknife works best if you have something decent to clamp and hold the stave while shaving with the drawknife.... and that adds further 'complication' to the whole process. But when using a hatchet all you need is something to rest the stave on while making the hatchet cuts. A 'chopping block' made from a section of log is good. I've even used an old magazine on the floor indoors when working on a bow.

A hatchet seems more primitive to me as well. And with practice (and a sharp edge) some surprisingly fine cuts can be made.

I still like having the old drawknife hanging on the shed wall. I might use it one day to make some new oars for our small dinghy.

Best wishes from New Zealand.... Coote.

Well I'm not sure what kind of wood you are using over in New Zealand, but I know with the available woods here it is very difficult to try to make a bow using only a hatchet. I can do most of the main wood removal with my hatchet, but when it comes down to the fine work of removing the last bits of wood and finishing the final shape, it is way too difficult to do with the hatchet. Maybe you are using a razor sharp edge with your hatchet that allows you to do this; I don't know. I know that I am not able to get a razor sharp edge regardless of how long I spend sharpening my hatchet. And I have a good hatchet too, it's wetterlings, and it was pretty sharp when I got it, and I can get it pretty sharp whenever I need to, but never razor sharp with the ability to cut paper with ease. It's really annoying because that is how sharp it should be.

[canid]

you can find a nice flexcut on amazon or ebay. i'd offer to make you one if i had the time or resources at the moment.

[gryffynklm]

Try woodcraft. I but a lot of hand tools from them. Or like others have said E-bay. Ebay tools often need some work to correct previous poor sharpening.

http://www.woodcraft.com/Search/Search.aspx?query=draw%20knife

[Coote]

I've made bows from a few different types of wood, but the type I've played around with most is kanuka. This is a relatively hard wood which tends to have a wavy grain and it splits easily. It might typically be used for axe handles if you had to make one yourself. It isn't easy to work with. In fact it can be a real problem sometimes when using a drawknife because the drawknife can start a long split in the wrong place and 'pull out' excessive wood, wheras a fine chop with a hatchet in the right direction generally just takes off a nice thin slice or scallop of wood.

I doubt that any of my axes or hatchets would cut paper easily like, say, my small Opinel pocketknife. The blades on the hatchets are a lot thicker and they don't slice as nicely. I guess at times I've had a hatchet blade sharp enough to shave a few arm hairs, but I don't worry if my hatchet blade doesn't shave easily. To test hatchet sharpness I might just look at the blade or maybe lightly draw my finger across the edge... or perhaps drag a fingernail across it... if the fingernail tends to grab on the edge it is plenty sharp enough, but if it slides it might be too blunt. I find that I can sometimes see a shiny line on the edge that indicates that portion of the blade is a bit rounded and blunt.

One hatchet I have used a lot has a relatively thin blade. I rehandled it with a bit of kanuka. The head of this axe is soft enough to sharpen with a file, and I have quite a long sharp angle on the blade rather than an abrupt wedge shape at the edge. After using the file I might use a medium carborundum stone to smooth the edge a bit.

When I am roughing out the stave for a start (typically from a sapling trunk split in half), I might make big swings with my hatchet. But in the later stages I will generally hold the hatchet right up at the head and make very light blows. Here is a picture showing how I hold the axe in the last stages:
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h71/kiwicoote/finecut.jpg

[Coote]

Just an afterthought.... although it isn't primitive, I have found that a coarse sanding disk on my 4" disk grinder is one of the best and fastest ways of removing wood from a roughed-out stave. It is easy to remove too much wood, so you have to be careful.

If I had a job that might be best done with a drawknife, but didn't have a drawknife or my disk sander, then I might get one of my machetes and wrap a heavy rag around the 'point' end to make the second handle.

I have come to really appreciate the versatility of a short machete. I have gotten most of my bow-making out of my system now that I am a big machete fan, but I reckon that my Tramontina machete might make a good job of hacking a bow from a stick. So if I ever get around to making another bow, I am likely to get out the Tramontina.

[kyratshooter]

http://search.3riversarchery.com/search?w=draw+

Bowmaking tools of all kinds as well as raw materials.